The Present Disclosure relates, generally, to structures utilized for cooling of electronic components, and, more particularly, to structures which offer improved total thermal dissipation for electronic components.
The speeds at which electronic components operate are ever increasing, and with those increasing speeds comes a similar increase in heat generated by the components. It is desirable to remove as much heat as possible generated by electronic components so that the components can operate at their highest efficiency. Numerous heat sink devices abound; these heat sinks typically include solid blocks of a material with high thermal conductivity, such as aluminum. They include a solid base for contacting a surface of the electronic module, typically the top surface thereof and a plurality of solid fins that extend upright with respect to the module. These fins transfer heat in a static manner by conduction from the module to the air passing across or beside them, and do not promote air flow from the interior of the shielding cage. Often the location of the electronic modules on the device motherboard is very crowded and does not provide optimal airflow along the heat sink fins. The increasing densities of the boards necessitate a crowded periphery, where the number of elements near the cages create even poorer airflow conditions.
The Present Disclosure is therefore directed to a heat transfer structure particularly suitable for use with electronic modules, especially modules arranged in a ganged configuration of two or more ports in a single shielding cage assembly, and which provides a guide that directs air into the shielding cage assembly and across at least one surface of a module and out through a thermal transfer member.